life as a 'hipster'

Good evening everybody. What's happening? What's going on? Welcome to Ghent!

It's 14 december 2015, final week before the Christmas Holidays and also final week of the semester. This doesn't only mean that my finals are coming up, but also that my first semester as a freshmen college student has ended.

Going to college, it was a huge step in my life. New people, new friends, new city,.. In my whole life, I was used of doing the same things, at the same time, with the same people at the same location. During elementry and secondary school my whole life was programmed for me. Parents, teachers, doctors,.. they all decided what I did. In my whole life I thought I had freedom, but I only discovered my true freedom when I came to college. As I said in one of my earlier blogposts, I decided to grow my beard at the end of high school. In the beginning, people hated it! My dad always made these 'jokes' that I should shave it off or that I wouldn't find any girlfriend (in your face dad!), my friends and classmates always told me that I was becoming a Jihadi, a teacher even asked me if I were a muslim and if I had some radical muslim thoughts.. Like, what the f*ck society? In what kind of world do we live if a person can't do what they want, without being designated as a weirdo or even a Jihadi?

My girlfriend told me a few weeks ago: "you don't belong in the countryside", and I thought about it, and she is 100 % correct. I grew up in the countryside and have lived their for my whole life. When you live in a small village as I do, everyone knows who you're and what you did. People in the countryside love people who live according to the standards and hate people who are a bit 'different'. My friends at secondary school always told me that I am a hipster. And yes, maybe I'm. I'm not the ordinary guy, not anymore. Before, I was this guy who did what society wanted him to do, but that's not who I'm, that's not how I want to live my life! I want to live how I want, I want to wear the clothes that I want, I want to do my hair and beard how I want, I just want to be who I really am.

The past years, I always had fought with the thought of who I really am. But everything changed when I went to Barcelona during the spring break. I love photography, I love taking pictures of everything. When I did this back home, everyone thought that I was being crazy: "what is this weirdo doing with his camera?" "Is he planing to burgle this house?" and so on.. When I did this in Barcelona, everyone acted normal. I saw people wearing these 'risky' clothing, having a beard and making photographs, and nobody acted suprised. I loved it! The same happened this summer when I was in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. People can be who they want to be when they live in a city!

Some pictures that I have taken while I was in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia and Barcelona

So living in Ghent and going to college in Ghent, it had a huge impact on me! I can finally wear what I want te wear, I can finally listen to the music that I want to listen to, I can finally do my passion (photography) without seeing people staring at me or gossiping about me. When you have lived your whole life in a cage as I did, and when you finally can be who you want to be, you can't describe this feeling. College has given me so much: my freedom, my identity, but also this blog.

As you know, this blog is compulsory for our Business English course. But for me it has been much more than only this blog about school, it has been a tool of telling my story to the world, of sharing my life to the world. And I love it! That's why I decided to continue this blog, even when the course has ended. Ofcourse I will have to change the name of this blog, but the subjects will be the same!

So, this was the big news that I had announced last week, I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I do! :)

See you in 2 weeks with a new blogpost, goodbye!

PS: because photography is my big passion, I'll try to post some pictures everytime when I post a blogpost!

Finals are coming to town!

Goodmorning everybody. What's happening? What's going on? Welcome to Ghent!

Yeah, if you're as much of a no-lifer as I am then you probably recognise the intro that I used. Yes it's the intro that Ben Brown (YouTube vlogger) uses in his YouTube clips. I was watching his latest clip when I realised: "hey I should write a new blogpost", so please don't judge! ;)

So 6 December. In Belgium this is kinda a national holiday for kids. Sinterklaas ( Saint Nicholas) comes to every house and brings gifts for every child, just because he can! But, I'm 18 years old, the days that I was so excited to get my presents are far behind and the only thing special about this day is: shoot, I have to study because my finals are coming.. But don't worry, this blogpost will not only be about my finals, because I don't want to make you depressed! I will talk about what is going on with my life, what has happened in the past months and what will happen in the future!

We had the autumn vacation. My parents went on a trip to Germany, but because I had some trial exams I wasn't able to join them :( luckily they were so kind to buy me a Borussia Dortmund jersey, thanks mom & dad! During this vacation I also worked a bit, college life is expensive you know.. I also found the love of my life! We all have this one person in our life that means so much for you that you would do everything for them, well I found her!

After the autumn vacation we had our trial exams. A trial exam of Accounting and Business Economics. I was kinda scared for these exams. I know, you won't get any marks for it, but it still is an exam! But luckily everything went fine! Without doing that much effort, I was able to get good grades, let's hope that I will have as much luck during my finals! After these trial exams, college went on: go to class, make notes, come home, do homework, make summaries and try to do some tasks for in the future. Also we made some test for International Business English, a listening and vocabulary test. Both tests went good, so it was worth it to give up social life for a certain period!

During the last months something else happened. Curatio had his party week! As you already know, I'm in a student society called Curatio. During the week of the 16th of November, Curatio celebrated their third birthday! Every day of the week, they planned an event. I only went to 2 of those, because I'm too broke to go out every day of the week.. On monday we had a quiz, our team (team fantastic, I know lame name) didn't end last, so that's something to be proud of, isn't? On wednesday we had a gala ball. Everyone was dressed up, every schacht (new member of the student society) had to prepare the decoration or snacks and it was just a wonderful evening!

But yeah, finals are coming! Everybody hates them, but it's something that has to happen.. When you go to class, everybody is talking about it. People say that they should have done more already, some people say that they won't go out anymore, people are sharing their summaries (because sharing is caring!), ... I don't know what I should expect. I think I'm well prepared for these finals. I already made most of my summaries, I'm already trying to gain some sleep and I didn't go out for like 3 weeks. For me, the hardest part about our finals is that we have them during the holidays. I love Christmas and Newyears eve, these are like the most important days of the year for me. But hey, I would rather study during the holidays than studying while everybody is going on a vacation in August!

So, for all my fellow college students out there: good luck and stay strong! 1 month of hard work, and then we have 2 weeks of vacation!

See you in two weeks guys with another blogpost and some big news! ;)

PS: as I said in this blogpost, I'm a huge fan of Christmas. So yeah, I decided to change the layout of my blog, hope you like it!

8750 in Ghent

It has been more than 2 months that I 'live' in the center of Ghent, so I thought: hey why not make a blogpost about one of Belgians most beautiful cities.

Ghent: capital of the province East-Flanders, one of Belgiums most famous university cities, one of the most annoying accents that we have in Flanders,.. As a born and raised West Fleming, I grew up with a lot of prejudices about Ghent. I grew up in a village near Bruges (capital of the province West Flanders), and the hate between Bruges and Ghent goes back to the medieval time. West Flemish people think that Bruges is the best and most beautiful city in Flanders and vice versa. So, me as a West Fleming and 8750er (Wingene for life) who decided to go studying in Ghent, imagine what kind of a prejudices I had about this city.

First of all I had to convince my parents that I wanted to go study in Ghent, and not in Bruges. My mother always told me: "when you have found a course that you want to follow, and when they have this course in a school in Bruges, then you'll go to that one". So luckily I decided to follow IBM, a course which you can only follow in Ghent or Antwerp, and because I don't want to go to Antwerp (another story about prejudices) they would have to let me go to Ghent.

So, I got enrolled in the course IBM and I even convinced my parents to let me stay in a dorm, what now? The first 2 weeks I kinda went on a mission to discover the city of Ghent. I may live about 30-40 minutes away from it, but in my whole life I have been to Ghent maximum 10 times. And I got to admit: I'm in love with Ghent. My dorm is located perfectly: a 5-10 minutes walk to our main campus, a 5 minutes walk to the Veldstraat ,a supermaket located 150 meters from my doorstep, a tram stop located 100 meters from my dorm,.. it's a dream that came true. I always wanted to live in a big city (mainly because I grew up in the countryside) and now I kinda do!

Living in a big city has his pros and cons. Because you live in a big city, you discover new and amazing places. I discovered new places such as Wasbar, Head or Tails (one of my favourites), Foley's and many more. Something else which is amazing about Ghent is the view. One of my hobbies is photography, I like to make photo's of everything. And I got to say: Ghent is truly a goldmine. You can find everything over here: nature, amazing clouds, architectural beauties,.. Some examples:

    

One of the biggest disadvantages is the noise pollution, this is especially hateful when you want to get some sleep after a night out with your friends or student movement..

As a born and raised West Fleming it's hard to say this, but I fell in love with this wonderful city called Ghent. I always wanted to live in a big city and now I finally am! I try to enjoy every minute of it. When I'm not in my dorm studying (something that needs to be done ofcourse) you can always find me in the Head or Tails, Starbucks or just on a mission to discover new places in this heaven on earth!

This blogpost was about how I fell in love with Ghent, see you in a few weeks! :)

Society is a bitch

It's the Ascension holiday, perfect time to write a new blog post. And this time it will be about me, who I really am.

17 August 1997, it was 6 AM and a small kid decided that he was ready to explore this giant world. That small kid got the name Lars Vergote, named after one of Swedish best football players ever: Henrik Larsson. Thus far my relationship with any Scandinavian country, because everytime when I go on a holiday people think that I'm either Scandinavian or Russian.. I got to admit, I don't mind to drink some Wodka, but hey who doesn't? 

I grew up in Wingene, it's a village in West Flanders, and yes it's true what they say about Wingene: there are more pigs than people in our village! I grew up with my parents and 2 brothers: Bram (11 years older) and Pieter (14 years older). I went to Centrumschool (way better than Sint Elooi or Wildenburg, Wingene kids will understand the hate) and I also played football at our local team: KVC Wingene. The first ten years of my life I was obsessed with football, and I don't want to brag about myself but I was really good at it. I scored each season around 150-180 goals and Club Brugge wanted me! But then, on a warm October day in 2007 my life changed forever. 

Try to find me ;)

I was playing football at the playground when I got stuck with my foot in a subsidence. I wasn't looking to my feet and wanted to keep running so my kneecap made a 360. Before I knew, I was lying in the hospital having a knee operation. Conclussion after 4 months of rehabilitation: 1/10 of my kneecap is dead and I will never be able to play football again. When I heard this, my life collapsed because football was (and still is) a huge part of my life. A few years ago we tried to fix my kneecap again because the operation that I had wasn't performed well. So we went to the sports doctor of Club Brugge (my father works there) and he tried to flow some blood in my kneecap again by placing 5 aluminium pipes in it, but the harm has already been done. 

I'm not that kind of person who sits back and doesn't do a thing about it, so I started swimming at the Tieltse Zeeduivels. For the first time after my operation I finally was able to enjoy sports again. I even became third on the Flemish championship 200m crawl! But the amount of school work and intensive training schedule (training at 5:30 am before going to school) decided that I had to stop doing something that I liked, again. 

And life after that wasn't easy. Bad grades during my first year of secondary school, no motivation to do sports again which leaded to becoming fat, getting bullied, having difficulties making friends in secondary school,.. Secondary school wasn't really what I expected it to be. During my second year I was in a new class and made new friends, but the bullying never stopped. It was only during my final year that I decided to do something about.I realised for the first time that life is what YOU make of it. So I grew myself a beard (I always wanted to have one), changed my hairstyle and outfit and started jogging. For the first time in 6 years I was who I am, not a puppet of what society wanted me to be. And I got to say, it was the best decision of my life! 

So to all the kids out there, who are struggling in secondary school: be yourself, do what you want and what you think is best for you. Secondary school is only a phase in your life, don't let those kids decide who you are! 

To end this blog post, I want to share some lyrics of an amazing song (Sum41 - Fat Lip). It's kinda my life motto: " I don't want to waste my time, become another casualty of society". 

See you in a few weeks! 

A cocktail Overpoort & IBM please!

So two weeks have passed by since I posted my first blog post, wow time really flies! The past two weeks not that much happened, but I will do my best to tell about how life is in Ghent as an International Business Management student!

So, first of all it was Jonas his 18th birthday so we decided to give him some amazing but weird gifts and let him do some tasks at Overpoort, just because we can! It was a wonderful evening, we laughed and had so much fun, isn't that what college life is all about? Apart of the regular going out to the Overpoort we also had classes! The introduction to the different courses ended, so school was about to begin, and how...
During the third week, we received a few tasks to do, so I had to find the best way to do all my homework and to still have a social life, it was hard but I suceeded! Also during the past 2 weeks, my thoughts about the course have dissapeared. I thought that language would become a problem because with the specific vocabulary and that I wouldn't be able understand everything. But in the past weeks I realised that everything will go just fine!

During the fourth week most of the things stayed the same: go to class, come home, make homework and watch a movie or go out with my friends. One thing was different, I had my first Cantus! Together with some friends from my class we decided to go to a student organisation: Curatio. It's an Artevelde student organisation for everyone who studies IBM, Bedrijfsmanagement, Journalistiek and Communicatie management. So, my first Cantus... I didn't know what I could expect. We all heard some stories about people who went to a Cantus and what happens over there, but you never know if those stories are really true or exaggerated. Well I can tell you one thing: those stories are really true. During the Cantus a lot of things happened so I'm not going to tell everything, but if I can say one thing: Curatio are party animals!

So this was my second blog post, see you the next time with hopefully more stories!

This one time, at college ...

If we may believe American Pie, Blue Mountain State and many other series, then college should be the time of our life, but is it?

Once I decided that I wanted to study IBM and got enrolled in the course I started to urging my parents to let me stay in a dorm, because I want to have some responisibilty in my life. So after a few weeks of urging, they allowed it (praise the lord and the seven kingdoms, right?), so my college year started at 11/09 when I got my dormkeys. When I arrived, I immediately met some of my dorm mates, really nice and awesome people. The only thing is, I live on the 6th floor with 6 girls and we have to share 1 bathroom, after realising that I only had I thought: I'm screwed. So yeah, after days of decorating my dorm and planning the bathroom schedule, everything was on point to start my college life! First of all we had our introduction day the 17th of september. During that day we learned how the course is structured, in which class we're in and we had a tour at the campus. To finish off the introduction day, there was a nice reception were we could meet or future teacher and fellow students.

So, 21/09/2015, the start of a new era. I finally got used of living with 6 other girls in my dorm, so I was optimistic about the new start, but then I woke up... To understand the problem we have to go back to 17/09, where they told me that I was in group 2. So when you're group 2 your class starts at 13h15 on monday. So when I checked my lesson schedule the first monday, I saw that I was placed in another group and all of a sudden I already 'skipped' 2 classes... So I went to the campus, explained everything to the woman who's responsible for IBM and she was able to put me back in group 2, what a relieve... After that false start, college life took off! During this first week, we mainly had introductions to the different courses. At first, I was a bit nervous about how the courses would go, if I would be able to understand everything because all of my courses are in English. But I got to say, it couldn't have gone better! I'm able to understand everything, the courses are really interesting and my fellow students are amazing! My first week went alright and even the second week went perfect. I was able to make the differents tasks that we had to make, I even got used of summarizing all of my courses (what happened to me? :o) and I can proudly say: I haven't skipped any classes.

When you tell people about Ghent, the immediately think about: University, College, medieval city and overpoort. To situate what Overpoort is: it's a street with alot of bars where every University or College student goes during the week. So, me as a good student tries to follow this tradition. So during the first weeks of college I went to Overpoort a few times with people from my dorm, friends from high school and also with some people from my class. And I got to say, everytime I went there funny things happened. But you know what they say: what happens in Overpoort, stays in Overpoort.

So this was my first blogpost about the life as a freshmen IBM student.

See you in 2 weeks!